


Of Sleuth Wood

by bewaretheboojum



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:00:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26762485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bewaretheboojum/pseuds/bewaretheboojum
Summary: Where dips the rocky highlandOf Sleuth Wood in the lake,There lies a leafy island...Written for Jay/Tim Spooktober. Chapter One is for prompt #1 - Vampire.Thanks so much to Bumpkin | Marns & Chibinightowl for the Beta help!
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 30
Kudos: 127





	1. Chapter 1

Jason hovered in the hallway, just outside the closed door to the meeting room. The muffled hum of voices behind the door bled into the sound of the flickering torches. They gave off a dull, smokey light and the scent of hot oil and burnt linen made Jason's nose twitch. He took one more deep breath, giving up on overhearing anything being said within the room.

Straightening his cloak, making sure his Wayne signet was clearly visible, Jason tapped firmly on the hardwood of the door. Holding the grip of his longbow firmly, comfortingly, Jason waited for the response.

The hum of conversation cut off briefly before a strong, clear voice rang out loud enough for Jason to hear.

"You may enter."

Bowing his head, Jason pushed open the heavy door and stepped slowly inside the room. As he entered, the hairs on the back of his neck started to prick, standing upright. He bowed deferentially, clenching his teeth at the eerie sensation ripping down his spine. Jason cut his eyes across the room, finding two figures seated at a small table near the fire.

"Sir, you called for me," Jason said with a tense politesse.

"No need for formalities, Todd," Wayne said, getting to his feet.

Jason straightened, tilting his head in acknowledgment and thanks. Then he immediately began scanning the room for threats and the source of his discomfort.

The room wasn’t as ornate as some of the others Jason had been in. This one was on the small side, dimly lit against the early autumnal dusk. A few torches lined the walls and a large blaze warmed the room from a fireplace along a nearby wall. A thick dark carpet softened his footsteps and heavy tapestries hung from the walls. One small table was pulled near the fire with two chairs set by it. A small carafe of wine and a few glasses were set out on an ornate tablecloth. 

Wayne was dressed in dark noble's clothes, forgoing a cloak despite the damp chill in the autumn air. His golden sigil, a bat within a moon, sparkled in the dim light. He loomed nearly as large as Jason when he stood. His light blue eyes watched Jason shrewdly, then darted to where Jason fingered the grip of his longbow.

The sound of a chair pushing back from the table caught Jason’s attention and he turned to watch Wayne’s companion get to his feet.

It was Drake, dressed in his formal seer's garb, the deep burgundy of his order's colors flowing around Drake’s slender figure. A small silver bird held his cloak clasped at his throat and, as it winked in the firelight it almost looked as if it was in flight. 

That, at least, explained why the hair on the back of his neck was standing on end. Drake always had that effect on him. Jason assumed it was the magic rippling around the seer, except that he never had the same sensation with any of the other magic users he had protected in the past. 

"Todd will accompany me on this, Lord Wayne?" Drake’s voice was cool and formal as he spoke. 

"You will need protection if this proves to be an issue of a more... terrestrial nature," Wayne confirmed with a nod.

"Yes, sir." Drake nodded, his expression distant. His spine was stiff and his face impassive as he spoke to Wayne with a firm confidence in his voice

Drake stood tall, hands clasped in front of him. His seer's robes draped around him as he stood almost impossibly straight. . The customary black kohl seers wore with their formal garb lined his eyes and made the blue of his irises seem even deeper and more otherworldly than ever. His long black hair was pulled back in a severe bun and a thin ring of silver wrapped around his head, two ornate birds hovering at his temples. 

Jason had worked with Drake a number of times and seeing him in formal clothes was always...

An experience.

While Drake tended to be fairly inscrutable, Jason did like working with him despite the stiff formality he tended to maintain between the two of them. Being a bodyguard all day every day tended to wear the shine off of almost everyone. Not Drake, though. Drake was almost always alert and on his guard. He relaxed somewhat around Jason, but never really let much slip. 

They had worked together before, saved each other often enough, that there was a trust between them. A trust Jason wouldn’t mind growing into a friendship if Drake would relax long enough for that to happen.

Drake and Wayne traded their final niceties as Jason tried hard not to shuffle his feet. He stood straighter in an effort to hide his impatience.

"You'll fill Todd in before you leave?" Wayne asked as he made to depart.

"Of course, sir," Drake responded, his voice firm and formal. It seemed as if his spine grew even straighter. 

Wayne made his way to the doorway, pausing just as he passed Jason. He turned back to look at the two of them with a thoughtful expression on his face. For a long moment, Wayne watched them without saying a word. 

The silence echoing through the room made Jason feel uneasy for reasons he couldn’t quite put his finger on. "Sir?" he prompted. "Is there something you--"

"Just be careful. Both of you," Wayne said gruffly, waving a hand as he left the room, shutting the door behind him with a soft thud.

The minute the door closed, Drake dropped back into his chair with a long sigh. Jason couldn't help but smile as he walked over to the table and sat down across from him.

The table was covered with an ornate cloth that probably cost more than Jason's horse. 

"You again," Drake said dryly, a slight smile playing at the corner of his mouth. He eyed Jason consideringly as he reached out and grasped the wine glass on the table in front of him.

As he took a long sip from the elegant cup, Jason noticed there was still a tension around his spine and shoulders, but it was altogether different than the tension he wore when Wayne was in the room. Drake's fingers were white-knuckled where he grasped at the stem.

"Me again," Jason confirmed. "How's the wine?"

Tim continued to drink as he lifted his free to hand to gesture that the wine was good.

It was clear that Wayne had barely touched the glass of wine he had left behind on the table. Jason picked it up, tipping it in Drake’s direction in a mock toast, before taking a long sip. 

Drake was right.

The wine was good. It was a deep, teeth-staining red, fruity and dry. He took another long sip, letting it warm him. A daft was wafting in from the nearby window, setting a chill in the air of the room despite the fireplace. 

"What on earth has he found for us this time?" Jason asked grimly. "Please tell me it's not another Callow Lizard. It took me weeks to get the smell of the last one out of my clothes."

A small, very weak smile played at one corner of Drake's mouth.

"No Callow Lizards," he replied, tilting his head to one side. "At least from what we know so far. I don't promise there won't be one at some point, though, given our usual luck."

"That's fair," Jason conceded. "So, what is it?"

Drake shook his head as he finished his swallow of wine, expression thoughtful but still guarded.

Jason had met quite a few magic users over the course of his life. Most of them, nearly all of them, were showy. They were willing to use their magic for small, inconsequential things to look exotic and powerful. Drake didn’t need to do that. He exuded magic in a way that none of the rest of them did. He didn't need to levitate a fork to prove he had something special inside of him. Jason could almost feel in the air around him, like a thick perfume or a heady soap. 

"It's not clear, yet," Drake admitted, pursing his lips grimly.

"What information does Wayne have?"

"Not a lot, right now,” Drake replied. “That’s part of the reason he’s pulling us in, rather than calling in a bigger force right away.”

“Do you think we’ll need a big force?”

“Hard to say,” Drake hedged.

“So what happened?”

Drake shook his head before taking a deep breath and leaning back in his chair. “There were two farms in outlying Gotham territory that have been attacked. No one is sure what attacked them but..." Drake paused, as if considering his next words carefully.

"But?" Jason prompted.

"But apparently the attack was very violent. No survivors. Not even the livestock..."

"How bad was it?"

"When one of the neighbors reported it-- an older man, a farmer, hard and gruff -- he could barely speak from weeping…” Drake trailed off, his voice growing thick as he spoke. He took a sip of wine, trying to regain control. When he continued, he didn’t seem calmer but his voice was even. “He said-- He said it looked like a deliberate bloodletting. Like bleeding out a deer before you butcher it."

They were both silent for a moment as Jason thought about that for a long minute. 

The biggest threat to farmers on the boundaries of Wayne lands were raiding parties, largely led by bandits living in the woods. Jason had been part of a force that had gone into the forest and tracked the group down nearly a year ago. They gathered the men, placed them in a trade, and monitored them to make sure they didn’t go back to looting. It worked. There hadn’t been an attack in months, as far as Jason knew.

Keeping an eye on them had been added to Jason’s many duties for Lord Wayne, and he had gotten to know several of the men. A few of them were a little rougher than usual, but none of them had ever committed that level of violence.

"When did it happen?"

"The bodies were found this morning. The runner came to Wayne just a few hours ago."

"How far out are the farms?" Jason asked, eyeing the dusky light outside. They were about an hour from full dark.

"Too far to leave tonight." Drake said as he let out a long breath. 

“What’s wrong, don’t you want to travel at night when there’s someone walking around playing vampire warrior?”

“Not especially, no,” Drake answered drly, with no sign of amusement.

He turned to look out the window. His expression was impassive but Jason could see the telltale signs of worry at the corners of his eyes.

There was something about this that was setting Drake on edge. More than usual, even. Jason had a feeling whatever this was about, it wouldn’t be a simple case of raiders. 

"We'll meet tomorrow then? Just before dawn?" Jason asked.

"Yes," Drake said slowly, not looking at Jason. "Just before dawn. Bring your horse and..."

Drake trailed off again and Jason waited for a long moment for him to finish. 

When he didn't, Jason prompted him. "And?"

Drake turned back to Jason then, seeming almost startled to still be in a conversation. He blinked his black-rimmed eyes for a moment before answering.

"Ah. And weapons. Bring weapons."

"I'm a bodyguard. Weapons are a given," Jason pointed out with a smile. Drake didn't smile back. “I have half a dozen on me right now.”

"And your arrows? You have enough arrows?”

"Of course, I have arrows," Jason scoffed.

"I mean tipped arrows," Drake cut in.

"Tipped? With poison? No, but I could make some..."

Drake shook his head and reached again for his wine, frowning when he found his glass empty. "No poison. With silver," he said. "And... and iron."

"Just iron and steel. Who tips an arrow in silver?"

Drake didn't answer, he just poured himself another glass of wine. "I'll get you silver ones tonight," he said, almost dismissively.

Rich burgundy sleeves, almost as red as the wine they drank, flowed around slender wrists as he turned the decanter from his glass to Jason's.

Jason raised his glass in a mock salute. "To old friends," Jason toasted with a teasing lilt to his voice.

Drake lifted his own glass and tapped to Jason's with a sharp expression on his face. "Or something like that," he said before taking a sip.

"I like to consider anyone I bleed on as much as I've bled on you an old friend," Jason joked.

Drake's expression hardened into something much more serious than Jason liked. 

"I did my best with... with the healing. Did you recover fully or is there... still pain?" Drake asked, haltingly.

"No pain," Jason replied softly. "You did good."

Drake didn't answer, but some of the tension eased from his shoulders.

Jason didn't remember the healing magic Drake had worked on him after the attack by the Callow Lizards. He hadn't been conscious at that point. All he knew was what the healer told him when he finally woke up, days later: that Drake had saved him, exhausting himself from the effort to keep Jason alive.

The days after their battle with the Callow Lizard had been a blur. A blur of vivid nightmares and the waking torment of wild hallucinations. The healer said it was a byproduct of Drake's magic, but it had felt too wild and too real to have all been in his head.

He owed Drake his life.

"On the plus side," Jason said, grinning. "At least we don't need to worry about Callow Lizard dung this time..."

"No, just slipping in cow blood,” Drake said grimly. “Or worse.”

“Did you talk to the neighbor?”.

“Calling it ‘talking’ would be generous,” Drake said. “But yes. I spoke to him. It was hard to get anything coherent out of him. He just kept talking about blood and vampires and stakes and all of that.”

“It isn’t… right?” Jason asked, curiously.

Drake hummed and raised an eyebrow as he took another sip of wine. “Vampires don’t exist,” Drake pointed out. 

“What do you think it is, then?” Jason asked softly.

Instead of replying, Drake looked back at the window. The sun was setting off in the distance, sinking below a thick brush of forest tinted yellow and orange. The firelight set flickering shadows dancing across the skin of Drake’s face as he watched the fading sunlight. 

Jason had never met anyone who could be quite as still as Drake could be at times. There were moments when he hardly seemed to breathe. 

Pensive and unmoving, Drake didn’t answer for a long moment. “I don’t know,” Drake finally conceded softly. 

Jason swallowed hard, wishing he could read the expression in Drake’s face in that moment. He looked almost regretful, sad in a way that made Jason’s chest feel tight. 

“Whatever it is, I’m sure we can handle it,” Jason said with a grin. He tapped the table between them and Drake looked up and into Jason’s eyes. “Don’t worry,” Jason said. “I’ll keep us safe while you work your magic.”

“Let’s hope that’s all it takes...”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim and Jason come to the crime scene.
> 
> Written for Prompt #2 for JayTim Spooktober: Cryptids 
> 
> Thanks again to Chibinightowl and Marns for the Beta reading!

Jason's horse snuffled and stamped as they made their way down the long, tree-lined road. The air was crisp with a bite of morning coolness and a mist hung low to the ground around their feet. A thick canopy of red maple and light orange beech trees loomed over them.

They had been riding for several hours at this point, most of the mist was burning off as the morning sun rose above them. Jason slumped slightly in his saddle as he rode but Drake, who was about a meter ahead of him, still sat straight in his saddle.

This morning, he was free of flowing robes and dark eye makeup. He had traded in his formal clothes for his usual traveling garb and Jason couldn't say he wasn't disappointed. He wore a dark blue traveling cloak, still clasped with his bird pin. Thick leather pants were tight around his long slender legs and he had boots that went up past his knees. Drake always looked stunning in the dark burgundy of his order, with kohl smudged around his eyes, but he seemed more familiar, more accessible, in his traveling clothes.

His eyes still looked darkly rimmed, though from lack of sleep, rather than kohl.

Drake had been mostly quiet while they rode out that morning. Aside from a few low greetings and a discussion of their path, he hadn't said much. He simply sat in his saddle, looking pensive, and only occasionally muttering something encouraging to his mare.

Taking a deep breath, Jason tapped at his horse's side and encouraged him to pick up the pace so they were walking side by side with Drake and his horse.

"How much longer, do you think?" Jason asked.

Drake hummed quietly before tilting his head to one side, thoughtfully. "Another two hours or so if we keep this pace. We're meeting another neighbor just around noontime. He will lead us to the farmhouse we need to inspect. We should get to the meeting place a bit early, which will give us time to rest the horses and eat."

Jason nodded, but watched Drake out of the corner of his eye. While Drake's voice was low and confident, there was still a clear tension in his shoulders. That, coupled with the fact that he looked like he hadn't slept the night before, made Jason think that there was more to this than Drake was letting on.

"You're worried about this one," he said, trying to keep his voice even and low.

Drake nodded and puffed out a breath that turned into a susurrus mist in the cold morning air. "An entire family has been killed so yes, I'm worried about this one."

"The Callow Lizard caused almost as much damage by the time we got there,” Jason pointed out. “It's more than that. "

Drake was silent at that, pursing his lips before shaking his head again. "It's... this business with the blood. The Lizard just killed because he needed to eat. It was bestial and his nature. This... This feels..."

"Human?" Jason offered.

Drake shook his head. "Deliberate. It feels deliberate. As if the horror of the violence was part of the point."

"So human," Jason repeated grimly.

Drake glanced at Jason then before nodding in concession, his shoulders hunched and his head bowed almost protectively.

The mist cleared by the time they made it to the agreed-upon meeting spot. They led their horses to some water and browse. Jason ate some hardtack and deer jerky while Drake nibbled at an apple he had found along the way. 

When the neighbor arrived with a low "Hullo!," Drake fed the rest of his apple to his horse before walking over to the man.

The neighbor was older than them, perhaps somewhere around fifty. His clothes, while practical, were very nice and probably made by a tailor rather than his wife. He had sturdy shoes and a good pair of boots that could have only been a year or so old.

"Have you been waiting long?" he asked, clearly trying to be pleasant despite a nervous tension around him.

"Just long enough to eat," Jason said with a reassuring smile.

The man smiled back and they all shook hands.

"I'm Lonan," he introduced himself. "I run the mill a few miles away from the Avery farm. I was--"

Drake cut the man off abruptly. "You own a mill?" he asked, intently.

"Uh, yes," Lonan said with a nervous smile. "It's been in my family for generations."

"And have you noticed anything unusual around your mill recently?" Drake pressed.

"No, thank the Good Lord," Lonan replied. "Whoever did this, left me and my wife alone. My sweet wife keeps saying 'there but for the grace of God' and she's right. She says she thinks it’s the Gotham Devil. Her grandma’s cousin saw the Devil the first time it flew through Gotham."

Drake just nodded thoughtfully.

"You'll take us, though? To the Avery farm?" Jason asked.

"Aye, I'll take you to the gate. but I won't go in. Hans went past the gate and now... I'm not sure he'll be much good for anything now."

"That's fine," Drake said. "There's no need for you to go further than that.”

It was another twenty-minute ride to the Avery farm. Jason noticed how Lonan grew tenser the closer they got to their destination. His expression grew dark and serious as they rode up to the fence that surrounded the grazing land around the farm. 

Lonan paused at the gate. "You can go on ahead. I'll be here when you get back," he said grimly.

Drake dismounted and tied his horse's reins to the fence.

"We're walking the rest of the way?" Jason asked curiously as he looked down the long pathway that led out to the farm. It was probably another mile's ride to the closest outbuilding.

"It's best if we leave the horses," Drake said simply before turning back to Lonan. "We'll be back as soon as we can. I promise."

Jason dismounted and tethered his horse as well, not really looking forward to the chilly walk to the farm. He slung a quiver of extra arrows across his back and Drake opened the gate to the fence.

When they slipped through, Lonan closed it behind them. It was almost as if he unconsciously was trying to keep what was in that farmhouse closed off from himself and the rest of the world.

As they walked down the path, Jason couldn't help but notice that Drake's eyes darted all around them.

"You brought them, right?" Drake asked when they were out of earshot of Lonan.

"The arrows you brought this morning? Yes, they're in my quiver."

Drake nodded in approval.

"What are you looking for?"

"I wish I knew," he said tensely. "You should notch an arrow. An iron-tipped one. I think."

Jason did as he told, pulling an arrow from his quiver and aligning it on his bow.

It took them about ten minutes to reach the farmhouse. They stood in the clearing between the house, the barn, and a small shelter built for the dogs and chickens. The place was eerily still and silent in a way that made Jason's skin crawl.

"I don't hear anything," Jason said eventually.

"Me either," Drake said tightly. "Not even any birdsong."

"You'd expect them?"

"It's migration season... There should be flocks of them gathering in fields like this. Red-winged blackbirds, robins, geese. There's nothing..."

"That is-- That is a good point."

Drake swallowed and turned to look at Jason, his face tight with an emotion Jason couldn't quite read. "Ready?" he asked, gesturing towards the farmhouse.

Jason nodded and tried to look reassuring. "I've got your back," he said.

"I'll go first," Drake said. "If I sense any magic or-- I'll just-- I'll let you know if you'll need to run."

Jason nodded and pulled up his longbow.

Drake eyed the area around them as he carefully picked through the dirt yard. He gestured to places he didn't want Jason to step as they walked towards the front door. The door wasn't locked and pushed open easily.

It was dim inside the farmhouse and Jason couldn't quite make out anything other than dark shapes as he waited for his eyes to adjust from the bright autumn sunlight. Drake's eyes, apparently, adjusted much faster. He could hear the sharp inhalation as Drake fought down a gasp. 

Jason breathed in then too and that's when the scent hit him. The thick metallic smell of blood rushed over him. Instinctively, Jason readied his longbow, pulling back the string.

Drake held out one hand and said something softly. A low blue orb suddenly hovered above his palm, glowing dimly in the darkened room.

That's when Jason saw the carnage.

There was blood splattered across the walls and three bodies hung upside down from their feet by ropes tied to the rafters. Dark pools of clotting red liquid were thick on the floor under the bodies. They swung gently from the draft coming in through the open door behind them.

Drake cursed, choked, then cursed again.

"Do you sense anything?" Jason bit out, tense and anxious.

"Yes, but not-- There's nothing here now. Just the bodies. Nothing--” his breath caught as his eyes focused in on the hanging bodies. “Nothing else," Drake finished lamely as he struggled to maintain his composure.

Jason clenched his teeth, looking up at the figures above him. It was a man, a woman, and a young girl. They all wore white sleeping robes stained dark with blood.

"We need to get them down. Bury them..."

"Burn them. I think," Drake said tightly. "But not yet. Go wait outside."

"I--"

"I'll be fine. Wait outside."

Jason did as he was told, wishing he didn't feel quite as grateful to get out of that fetid house. The minute he got back out to the dirt courtyard, he took a few long deep breaths of clean autumn air. He felt himself relaxing slightly before--

A low flash of light Jason almost couldn't see came from behind him. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as it often did when Drake performed magic around him. He felt the power tickling up his spine and play along his skin.

He bit his lip trying to ignore the sensation as he took in the area around him.

If there had been a struggle, it was all inside. The courtyard was totally devoid of any blood or chaos. In fact... there were only three sets of footprints in the dirt that Jason could see. Two were clearly from him and Drake and the other set was likely from the neighbor who had found them. Aside from that, there were only prints from livestock in the courtyard.

Jason was still pondering over this when Drake came back out. His face was tense and pale, jaw clenched, and lips pursed sharply together. He didn't look at Jason, his eyes focusing out in the distance, along the road they came in on.

"Find anything?" Jason asked. "With magic, I hope. Because you ain't gonna find any footprints."

Drake turned to him with a curious expression on his face. Jason nodded down to the dirt.

"The footprints in the dirt. It's just me, you, the neighbor, and a goat or something."

"A goat? The livestock are all dead too, aren't they?"

Jason shrugged as Drake eyed the ground around them. Abruptly, Drake made his way to the barn and peeked in. He was right, the livestock were all dead. Bodies littered damp straw and blood pooled on the floor.

"No goats," Drake said grimly, stalking back over to the courtyard to inspect the footprints again.

"How could you tell?" Jason asked wryly following after him.

Drake just shook his head and folded gracefully to look closer at the footprints. "Do these look more like a deer to you?" he asked, thoughtfully.

Jason squatted down next to him and nodded. "Yeah, you might be right…”

Drake looked grim and thoughtful again as he eyed the prints in the dust. "We'll need to burn them all. Even the livestock."

Jason nodded seriously and the two of them got back to their feet.

It took some time to arrange the bodies in the clearing, one for the humans and the other for the animals. Fortunately, they didn't need to gather tinder or fuel. Drake called forth his magic and set them all ablaze with a spine-tingling flash of light.

Drake slipped off back into the barn, leaving Jason to watch as the bodies burnt down to ash.

When it was done, nothing but charred marks in the field remained. Drake returned, looking white a little sick. He extinguished the flicking blue flames just as easily as he’d summoned them.

"You look pale. Do you need to eat? Get your energy back up," Jason asked softly.

“God, no. Not..." Drake made a coughing sort of gag and shook his head. “No food."

Jason nodded and they made their way back down the road to Lonan.

"You found them?" he asked as they exited the gate. 

Drake shut it firmly behind them. "We did. They've been... I burned the bodies," Drake explained as he walked over to his horse and started digging through his saddlebags. "Give it a few more days and then you can return to set a memorial there."

"Is it safe?" Lonan asked nervously.

"You will be safe," Drake replied, walking back over to the man and handing him something. "But just in case, you and your wife should keep these on you for a few days.”

He held out a gloved hand to Lonan, revealing two little yellow flowers, pressed between sheets of glass soldered together with that looked like iron.

"What is it?" Lonan asked, hesitantly.

"St. John's Wort," Drake explained simply, giving Lonan a reassuring smile. "It's a protection charm."

"It'll keep us safe?" Lonan asked.

"If you keep it on you at all times, you’ll be safe," Drake said.

Jason wasn't trained in magic. A person had to be high born and tested for the skill to get into any of the tutelages for the magic arts. He did know one though: there was no such thing as protection charms. Protection charms were just something old ladies sold to gullible soldiers before a battle. Seers would certainly never claim to make something so... hokey.

“We looked over the scene and I can track the perpetrator,” Drake said, holding the charm out to Lonan. He accepted the charms with thanks as Drake continued. “We won’t need your help any longer, but we appreciate you taking us this far. You should head home to your wife and let her know you are protected now.

Lonan nodded gratefully and said a hasty goodbye. He rode off down the path much faster than he had come, not looking back once, his knuckles white around the charm Drake had given him.

Jason watched him ride off, hoping Drake was right about being able to track the perpetrator.

When he turned back to Drake, he was working on something in his hands, his fingers moving fluidly over something Jason couldn’t quite see.

"What was that all about?" Jason asked him.

"What was what?" Drake replied, not looking up from whatever he was fiddling with.

"Seers don't make charms."

Drake didn't answer, but he did reach for Jason’s arm. Gripping it, he pulled up the sleeve before tying something around his wrist.

It was an iron nail, looped around with a thin strip of leather. The nail lay flat across the top of his wrist with two strips of leather tied to each end. 

"What is this?"

"A protection charm," Drake explained, thin, gloved fingers tying the knot tight.

"Seers don't make charms," Jason repeated.

Drake looked up at him then, his face pale and his eyes darkly serious.

"Don't take it off," he instructed softly before releasing his arm and mounting his horse. "This way," he said, pointing off down the road.

Jason got on his horse and followed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason gets very confused. 
> 
> Written for Prompt #3 for JayTim Spooktober: Weres
> 
> Thanks again to Chibinightowl and Marns for the Beta reading!

They had ventured off the main road in pursuit of whatever it was Drake was following several hours ago. Their horses carefully picked their way through shallow springs and thick bracken as the trees above them melted from red maple and vibrant beech into orange oak and yellow ash. The sun was sinking lower and lower into the sky, and Jason found himself glad he packed the thick, warm scarf Artemis had given him as a gift the winter before.

He shivered against the chill in the air and wrapped his cloak tighter around him. 

Drake was silent in his saddle, seemingly unmoved by the drop in temperature. His eyes were fixed on something ahead of them that Jason couldn't see. The tingle of magic still played across Jason's skin, but it had faded into something more like a low tickling touch than the hair raising pressure it had been at the farmhouse.

Jason was still feeling queasy from the violence and the magic he had been exposed to earlier, and he was glad he could focus on leading his horse around downed trees and thick clusters of brush.

"Do you have a sense of how far the trail leads?" Jason asked, sidling up next to Drake's horse.

Drake pursed his lips in a way that made Jason wonder what he was thinking, then shook his head. His eyes were focused on something far ahead of them, almost as if he could see through all the trees and brush and on to the far horizon.

"It still feels... distant," he answered in a low, quiet sort of voice.

The canopy of trees curled above them like a domed ceiling. A thick layer of fallen leaves at their feet made everything feel muffled. The sounds of the forest were muted and the tap of his horse's hooves on the ground was a soft thud. It made everything around Jason feel isolated, almost cloistered from the outside world.

"We won't find it tonight?" Jason ventured, watching Drake out of the corner of his eye.

Puffing out a breath, Drake shook his head, his face pinched with worry as he spoke. "We'll need to camp.”

Jason nodded grimly, not looking forward to a night of interrupted sleep on the cold ground and hours of mind-numbing watch duty throughout the night. But they had to keep on their guard as they still didn't have any clues as to what could have killed the Averys.

At least, Jason didn't.

Although, he was starting to suspect that Drake knew more than he was letting on.

As they moved forward, the low light of the sun filtering through the yellow leaves had Jason feeling more and more tired. He had woken well before dawn that morning and had a hard day of work. He swayed in his saddle as he tried to keep focus on Drake's back as he rode just ahead.

Squinting in the warm, amber light of dusk, Jason could feel the gentle tingle of Drake’s magic more keenly. As his eyes shifted in and out of focus, for a moment he felt like he could almost see the trail Drake followed. A reddish blush that twisted through the forest before them. 

It was almost…

Mesmerizing. In a way. Almost like trying to catch a buffeting breeze between his fingers. 

Jason was still trying to keep the reddish trail in focus when Drake stopped abruptly.

Jason's horse came up short at Drake's voice and the heavy thud of the cold nail tied to his wrist bouncing against his bare skin jolted him slightly more awake. He realized it was roughly thirty minutes before dusk, the sun had sunk much lower behind the trees. 

"We should make camp here," Drake said, tugging up on his horse's reins and guiding him back a few steps before settling him into a halt. Drake's eyes glanced around the forest looming over them, taking in the trees, the small spring running nearby, lingering briefly on a patch of mushrooms growing up in a circle around an ancient oak.

"We could still ride for another hour," Jason ventured, fighting down a yawn. "At the very least."

Drake shook his head and stood firm. "No further tonight. I want to wait until morning so I can recast the spell. I feel like it’s fading."

For all that Drake was ramrod straight in his saddle, eyes alert and face tense, Jason could almost feel the exhaustion coming off him in waves. He wondered how much of Drake's decision to stop now was because he needed rest too.

Drake had been working magic all day and from what Jason had seen, he'd only eaten a couple of bites of a half-ripe apple a few hours before. 

Maybe Drake needed to rest more than he let on. “Alright. Let’s set camp.”

They dismounted and Drake went immediately over to the spring to refill their denuded waterskins. He took a long pull of water, then walked back to Jason. 

He held Jason's out to him as he looked around the clearing."You take care of the horses," Drake said, his voice pitched low. "I'll collect wood for the fire."

"Fire? Won't whatever we’re after see it, maybe make it take off even faster?" Jason asked, surprised. He eyed Drake worriedly and frowned. "Or worse, come back for us."

Drake’s eyes were sharp and focused as he spoke. "We'll need enough wood for the whole night. I won’t be able to keep it going on just my magic," he said softly. "You stay here with the horses. I'll go look for some hickory."

Jason didn’t really know how to argue with that. He had worked with Drake often enough in the past that he did trust him, but Drake was generally more forthcoming with his observations. Not that Drake was ever a talkative person, but he usually let Jason know what he was planning. 

With a shrug, he tended to the horses, pulling off the saddles and cargo and extracting their bedrolls. He was just setting up camp when Drake came back with an armful of wood. He set about starting the fire with a short burst of magic.

Dusk had faded into night by the time they settled down around the fire. Their cloaks were pulled tight against the sharp chill of the night. Jason felt warmer than he had expected to, the fire warding off the chill wind that blustered around them.

Drake’s shoulders were tense as he sat beside the fire, head bent low as he watched the crackling flames. A few strands of hair had come free from his tight bun and fell in small curls around his forehead and neck. Jason had to fight down the temptation to brush them back from Drake's face, use his fingers to sooth away the lines of apprehension that littered his face. 

For as much as the exhaustion dogged him, Drake seemed to have little appetite. They both chewed disinterestedly at their hardtack as they watched the flames of their campfire dance around them. The low, sad, autumnal song of the insects hummed around them and birds called out in the distant forest. The low hoot of an owl carried out across the forest. 

Jason found a thick tiredness pulling at his eyes. He rubbed at them, tipping his head back toward the canopy above their camp. A cool wind blew through his hair and it felt almost soothing against his face. The trees around them were thick, but many were beginning to lose their leaves in the chill of autumn. Small patches of dark sky were visible through the thick canopy.

Jason blinked as he looked up at them, curiously. "What direction are we traveling again?" he asked. "I thought we were headed South but I must have gotten turned around somehow."

"What do you mean?" Drake asked, turning away from the fire to eye Jason sharply.

"I mean... The stars... I don't... I don't recognize them. They look different somehow."

Drake looked up then too and suddenly went still beside him.

"See," Jason said through a yawn. "We should be able to see the Large Dragon Star Form just over there right now, right? And the Griffin should be off to our left. If we were moving South… I thought for sure we were."

As Drake looked up at the sky, head tilted back, Jason felt his butterflies in his stomach. The long column of Drake’s throat looked startling pale in the darkness around them and Jason felt a thrill of something thick and warm pool in his stomach. He wanted to lean in, nuzzle at the warm and press a soft kiss to the sensitive skin at the base of Drake’s throat... 

He swallowed hard as a long silence stretched between them, broken only by another low hoot of a distant owl.

"Two-whoo Two-whoooooooooo," the owl called, low and eerie in the dark forest. It was answered softly by the call of another of his kind. "Two-whoo Two-whoooooooooooooooooo."

Drake's back straightened abruptly and Jason sensed his tension and alarm but didn't understand what prompted it. The fire was warm, the stars, even unfamiliar as they were, sparkled beautifully in the sky. The owl's calls were soft and soothing. Almost hypnotic as they--

Getting to his feet, Drake looked around. "Quickly," he hissed in a low voice. "Your longbow, where is it?"

"My what?" Jason asked, feeling sleepy and a little stupid.

The owls called again, a little closer this time. "Two-whoo Two-whooooooooooooooooo."

"Your longbow," Drake asked again, keeping his voice low. "And the iron-tipped arrows."

"They're... with the saddlebags... I think. I left them when I laid out the bedrolls."

"Two-whoo Two-whoooooooooooooooo," the owl called again, even closer this time.

Drake pivoted quickly, starting to move toward the saddlebags when suddenly, the owl dropped down from the canopy of trees. It landed between Drake and the saddlebags, watching them both intently. 

"Oh," Jason said, stumbling to his feet. "He's big. For an owl. I thought that kind didn't get much bigger than twenty inches or so."

Drake didn't answer him, he just reached out and gripped Jason by the forearm tightly, pressing the iron nail into Jason's skin. His mind abruptly felt sharper at the cool press of the nail, and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. 

A tingling whisper of magic tickled down his spine and he turned to look at Drake who was staring down the owl.

Drake said something then, in a language Jason didn't understand. His voice was low, matter of fact. He waited after he spoke, as if expecting the owl to speak in return.

It didn't.

But just behind them came the call of another owl. "Two-whoo Two-whooooooooooooooooo."

Jason whirled just as two more owls landed behind them, just as large as the other. "What the--"

Drake didn't turn to look, he was still focused intently on the first owl who had landed. He spoke again in the language Jason didn't understand. It was similar to the language he used to cast spells but... different in an eerie sort of way. It was a lilting sort of brogue that made Jason's teeth itch.

"Drake..." Jason said softly but the other man just squeezed his wrist again, urging him to be silent.

Before Jason could try to speak again, there was a rustle off to their left. Two deer pushed their way through the brush and into the clearing. Drake barely glanced at them, before turning his attention back to the owl. Jason realized then, as he watched the deer, that they weren't quite deer at all. Their antlers hung with a thick Spanish moss and their shaggy brown coat had an almost green tint to it.

Then, as they stood there, nearly unarmed and totally alone, more and more creatures crept from out of the woods, surrounding them in a circle. 

First, it was the animals who weren't quite animals. Not just the owls who were too big or the deer who grew moss, but rabbits with eyes sparkling bright like jewels, and foxes with multiple tails. Hedgehogs who stood on their back legs and had bright red caps pulled over their heads, quills poking out between the knit. There were bears whose eyes looked dark and wise, and small little mushrooms with tiny mouse-like legs clustered in around their heavy paws. 

And then...

Then came the humans.

Like the animals who weren't quite animals, the humans weren't quite human either.

They had wings of moths, or legs of deer. Their skin was silky pale but tinged with green, and blue, and purple. Some were dressed in kilts of colorful fall leaves, others draped in moss. Their eyes almost glowed in the light of the campfire, sparking and glinting in a way that made Jason shiver. Long hair flowed down to their waists and their features, pointed and almost elven, were painted with stripes, and lines, and designs that made Jason feel dizzy around the eyes.

He swallowed hard as they watched him closely.

One of the human-like creatures stepped forward towards Drake. He was tall, well-muscled and strong, his skin a dusky blue with dark, unbound hair falling down his back. The paint on his face made his features look sharp, almost warlike. He had no wings or animal legs, but his ears came to a soft point, jewelry glittering in them. Despite the cold, he was only wearing a soft leather cloth around his waist and his feet were bare, anklets jingling around his heels.

“Kon,” Drake breathed softly, like the word was a name or a prayer or a plea.

The man stepped up close to Drake and spoke in that same lilting drawl that Jason didn't understand. Drake answered him, voice soft and low, speaking to him like they knew each other. As if...

The man, if he was a man, suddenly turned his gaze toward Jason. Sharp eyes, blue in a way that human eyes never could be, took him in intently. His eyes dropped from Jason's face to where Drake's hand gripped his wrist. His full mouth pressed into a thin line of disapproval as he turned back to Drake.

He said something else then, and Drake shook his head. 

Another one came forward, a female this time, with long flowing yellow hair, and dark red and gold butterfly wings. She was beautiful, tall and strong, her wings flicking slowly as she glared down at Jason. She said something to Drake as well, her voice harsh despite the lyrical nature of the language they spoke.

Drake shook his head and said something back to her, almost as if he was arguing. Jason wanted to cut in, to ask what was going on.

The tall one with the dark hair shook his head at whatever it was that Drake said. 

Drake released Jason's wrist then, shooting forward to put a hand to the other's man's shoulder. He said something in a soft, desperate whisper, and the man's face softened slightly. His expression looking fond, almost relieved as he looked down at Tim. Strong arms, ringed with thick tattoos wrapped around Drake, pulling him into a loose, affectionate hug. Drake relaxed then, almost melting into the other man in a way that made Jason’s vision go red. 

Jason felt his throat tighten and he wanted to step forward, grab Drake's shoulder and pull him away from this... this...

Before he could react, something whizzed up behind him. Strong, fast hands bound his wrists together tightly.

Drake whirled and shouted, and the being behind Jason said something sharp, aggressive and guttural. 

The woman with butterfly wings and long yellow hair lept towards Jason in a flurry of red and gold, and then...

Everything went black.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason wakes up in a strange new place.
> 
> Written for Prompt #4 for JayTim Spooktober: Ghosts
> 
> Thanks again to Chibinightowl and Marns for the Beta reading!

Jason's head throbbed and he winced as he fought through the thick veil of sleep into full wakefulness. Swallowing, he licked his dry lips and blinked his eyes open. A loamy, earthy scent hung in the air as he breathed in deeply. The room felt heavy with moisture and warm, almost humid. The prickling sensation of magic crept across his skin as he tried to steady his breathing.

Focusing his eyes above him, he saw a thick canopy of rich green over his head. Twisting vines and mossy roots grew together in a circle, creating a sort of bed set into a window as wide as the bed frame. A nest of blankets, softer than anything he’d ever felt before, cushioned him. Outside the window, he could dimly see little lights dancing off in the darkened distance. Jason wondered idly if it was the jewel eyed rabbits he had seen earlier in the forest.

His head still felt muzzy, thick and slow as if he had drunk too much wine. As more of the room came into focus he saw moss-covered stone walls and plants and trees growing up and through the floors and furniture.

Sitting up, he saw the room he was in was lit by small glowing mushrooms that sprouted from the moss-covered walls. Near the tall, circular doorway, Drake stood talking softly to the blue-tinted man Jason had seen just before he blacked out. Squinting, Jason tried to make out the expression on Drake’s face, but his vision was still fuzzy.

Jason’s vision cleared as he sat up a little straighter in bed. Drake noticed him moving in the bed and he cut his eyes to Jason briefly before turning back to the other man. He said something but Jason couldn’t quite make out the words and the man turned to look at him as well. His eyes darkened and his expression turned disapproving. Drake said something to him again before reaching up to cup his jaw with a bare, gentle hand.

Jason realized numbly that he had never seen Drake without gloves before. Even in the summer.

The other man looked back down at Drake and his expression softened. He bent his head and pressed a soft, gentle kiss to Drake's temple. Jason felt his heart start to beat frantically, but before he could react, the man turned and left.

Drake watched him go for a long moment before turning back to Jason. His hair wasn't in his customary bun anymore. It hung in thick waves down his shoulders and tumbled across his chest. His traveling cloak had been traded in for a light blue gossamer vest. Loose pants fluttered around his legs and thin bracelets circled his wrists, looking so delicate they could have been made of spidersweb. The fabric made his skin look luminous, glowing an almost pale blue in the dimly lit room.

His bird sigil was gone, as were all the other trappings of his seer rank. In this moment, in this light, he looked more like the creatures that had captured them than a human. 

He walked slowly over to where Jason sat upright in the bed. Sinking down to sit next to him, Drake breathed out a long sigh. He looked even more exhausted than he had while they sat around the campfire. His shoulders slumped and lines of tension pinched at the corners of his eyes.

"I was hoping..." he began before breaking off with a shake of his head.

"Where are we?" Jason asked, his voice still thick with sleep. "We-- Are we--"

"I--" Drake began, taking a deep regretful breath as he did so, "We accidentally crossed over into the territory of the Faerie while we were pursuing our murder. I thought I had managed to stop us before we reached the border, but..."

"But?"

"We were close enough to the borderlands that they came for us anyway."

"What does that mean? Are we captives?"

Drake tilted his head from side to side as he tried to decide how to answer. "Yes and no," he said haltingly. "We are captive for now, but as soon as Kon brings word to the Faerie Lord, I suspect we will be freed."

"Kon? The blue man?"

"Blue man?"

"Yes, the one with face paint."

"Ah, yes. That's Kon. And those are the markings of a Faerie Warrior, not 'face paint,'" Drake corrected. "They represent the battles he has won."

"So he's strong? Do you think, if we can find my bow, that we could beat him and escape?"

"We don't need to," Drake said, shaking his head. "Kon won't hurt us. And the Fae will free us, soon enough. When they learn why we’re here, they will understand."

"He looks like he wants to hurt me," Jason pointed out wryly.

Drake grimaced and shook his head. "You're a human," he explained.

"But you're not," Jason said voice pitched low with conviction.

Drake locked eyes with him then, his expression serious and guarded. Up close, his skin looked even more luminous, his eyes swirled with something dark and exotic that Jason suddenly realized he would never understand.

"You should change," Drake said, not responding to what Jason had said. "They'll be bringing us for an audience with Faerie Lord and the less human you look, the better."

Drake gestured to a heavy wooden chair laid out with simple, navy blue robes. They were made of a sturdy, soft material, unlike the thin gossamer of Tim's clothes. Jason shrugged out of his dirty traveling cloak and slipped into the soft robe.

"Don't remove the... the charm. Keep it on," Drake instructed, voice firm and serious.

"The nail?" Jason asked, reaching down a hand to touch the nail. Despite the humid air around them, it felt cool to the touch. Pressing it against his skin made Jason feel... better. As if he could think more clearly now.

"Yes. Don't take it off. No matter what you do. And don't eat or drink anything. Not even water."

"How... how much danger are we in, right now?" Jason asked, fingering the cold iron of the nail.

Drake tilted his head to one side again as if considering the question. "I'm not in any danger. Not really. You? I'd say moderate to serious depending on how well you can follow instructions tonight."

"That's... not encouraging."

"Yeah, probably not," Drake conceded.

Kon returned then, slipping into their room without even announcing himself.

Drake turned to look at him with a small, but genuine smile that made Jason's heartache, greeting Kon in their language. The fae smiled back at him, unearthly blue eyes glittering in the will-o-the-wisps that floated in the room around them. He stepped in close to Drake, pulling him into a brief hug, and pressing his face against Drake's bare neck. 

Jason could see Drake shiver as Kon murmured something softly against his skin.

Biting down on a wave of jealousy and longing, Jason fingered the nail around his wrist.

Drake pushed Kon away as two more people entered their room. There were no doors to cover the entranceways and none of them called in greeting before entering. It was as if they all expected to be welcome in each other's rooms at all times.

The woman with the red butterfly wings came and hugged Drake as well, pressing a kiss to his cheek. Then another man, one with dark brown hair with the legs of a deer and small rounded antlers on his head, wrapped his arms around Drake too. He said something that made them all, even Drake, laugh.

Jason had never seen Drake laugh before. There had been small, hard-won smiles, but no laughter. He had never seen Drake this at ease, this relaxed, in all the years he had known him.

Drake turned then, as if remembering Jason was in the room. He looked oddly embarrassed as he spoke briefly to them, gesturing to Jason and speaking rapidly in their language. Jason heard his name but didn't pick up anything else.

When Drake turned to face Jason with a small smile he spoke in the Common tongue again. "Jason, these are my... friends. This is Kon, Ba'rt and Cass'i," he explained, gesturing to each of them as he said their names.

"Hi," Jason said, lifting his hand in greeting.

Cass'i's eyes narrowed as she watched the nail tied around his wrist slip down to his forearm. He couldn't understand what she said, but she looked annoyed. 

Drake walked over to Jason and gripped his wrist. He said something to her then turned back and repeated it to Jason in common. "It's a gift. From me. He cannot remove it," he said, eyes serious and focused on Jason’s.

It looked as if Cass'i was about to argue when a low horn echoed through the room. The reverberation from the sound sent an uneasy shiver down Jason’s spine. Clenching his teeth, Jason resisted the urge to cover his ears. The horn sounded again and Jason shut his eyes against the sound, taking a deep he tried to steady his suddenly pounding heart. 

He startled when he felt a gentle touch against his hand. His eyes flew open to see Drake looking at him with concern in his eyes. 

“We need to go,” Drake said to him gently as he pulled Jason to his feet.

“Where?”

“We gather The Hunt to discuss your issue with the Baobhan Sith,” the warrior fae, Kon, said in thickly accented Common. 

“The wha--”

“Come,” Drake interrupted, tugging Jason towards the doorway. “I’ll explain when we’re sure Kon is right.”

“I’m right,” Kon said grimly as Drake shot him a quelling look. 

Jason let himself be led out of their small, warm room and into a cooler circular hallway. It arched above them, covered in small blooming flowers, rich moss, and tiny mushrooms that occasionally scurried off in front of them. Will-o-the-wisps and luminescent mushrooms lit their way as they moved quickly through the halls.

"Where are we going?" Jason asked breathlessly, his throat feeling thick with worry. He wondered where his longbow was, and his daggers. He wondered if he would ever get them back.

"The Hunt is gathering outside. We need to speak our piece to the Faerie Lord. Kon has asked him to hear us out," Drake explained as they jogged along the hallway. 

Winding through earthy corridors and twisting wisteria, Jason lost track of where they were. He was hopelessly lost.

When they finally slipped out of a small door leading to the outside, the chill of the autumn night hit Jason and he shivered. Turning back, behind him he only saw a small circular opening, as if to a cave, behind them.

Before them was a blazing bonfire, the flames brilliant blue and purple as it flicked high into the night sky. An eerie, lyrical music played and figures danced around the fire, twisting and spinning in ways no human ever could. The earthy scent of loam mixed with the sharp pungent smell of mint and the low musk of furred animals. 

Jason felt the hair on the back of his neck rise and he swallowed hard, almost mesmerized as he watched the fairies dance in the light of the flicking fire. He felt an almost primal, instinctive fear as his heart began to pound faster in his chest. If Drake hadn’t had a warm, comforting hand clutching Jason’s forearm, he might have bolted. 

As Jason watched, more and more Fae leapt into the fray, dancing and twisting around the fire until they were nothing but a whirl of color. They looked almost like ghosts, phantoms dancing in the flames. He felt Drake's hand ripped from his as Kon pulled Drake into the swirling twist of fairies. Drake's worried expression softened into a smile as he melted into the morass of other fairies, laughing and twisting and dancing with the rest of them. His gossamer vest almost looked like wings as he spun and whirled with his friends.

He looked wild. He looked free.

He looked happy.

Jason swallowed hard as a sharp bitter sense of jealousy mixed with a strange jolt of pride and happiness for Drake. It was as if all the tension Drake had carried for all the years Jason had known him had melted into the night, and now all that was left was a man free of worry and filled with joy.

When another horn sounded, the swirling mass of fairies twisted apart as quickly as they had come together, each coming to a stop to stand around the fire with an excited burst of chatter. Drake returned to Jason, breathless, face flushed a gentle blue, and gave him an embarrassed smile. 

Kon looked at him smugly and wrapped an arm around Drake's shoulders.

A voice cut across all the chatter, silencing the Fae voices, the chirping of birds and soft lowing of animals. It was sharp, but still lyrical in the way of the Fae language.

It made a small speech and, as it did, Drake stiffened slightly, beside him. When the voice paused in its oration, Drake stood up straighter and called out.

A tall, ethereal figure slowly walked over to them. Long silver hair fell down its shoulders, unbound in the autumn breeze. It wore brilliantly silver robes that almost seemed to be a source of light themselves. Its eyes were dark, almost black, and its skin glowed with a soft white light in the same way Drake and Kon's glowed blue.

Drake wrapped his hand around Jason's wrist again, squeezing tightly as if urging him to be still and silent.

The figure stopped before them, sparing Jason only a glance of lofty indifference. 

Drake spoke to the figure, his voice deferential and soft. Suddenly, the figure whirled back to look at Jason, eyes fixed on him with a dark, terrible focus. 

Jason felt his skin crawl, and he swallowed around a gag that was working its way up his throat. 

"You are a protector," the figure asked, its voice thick and susurrous, echoing strangle in Jason’s head. "A protector of our Tim?"

"Yes," Drake cut in for him. "We have fought many battles together, protected each other--"

"Human battles," the figure interrupted furiously, turning a glare on Drake.

"Battles, nonetheless," Drake insisted cooly.

"And you fight a human battle now?" it pressed.

Drake nodded. "There was a family. They were slaughtered. We seek only to find their killer."

"You think this killer is here? In my land, the land of the Fae?"

"I followed them here. The creature that killed the family took their blood. The scent of it led me back here, to my home. I know we have no use for humans, my lord, but their senseless slaughter has never been part of your grand plan for our people. Surely, you would not have ordered or condoned--"

"You are correct," it cut in, its voice low and terrible. It made Jason shiver and fight the urge to step back. "We have no use for humans. Except for you, it seems. You call this human a protector. Your curiosity has led you to live among them."

Jason didn’t dare to move but he did cut his eyes to Drake. His face was pale and impassive as he locked eyes with the Faerie Lord. The realization that Drake was fae had hit Jason when he woke up in that strange room, but Jason hadn’t had the time to wonder why he had chosen to come and live in Wayne’s territory. Why he stayed among humans and took orders from Wayne when he was clearly well regarded by the fae. Why, when he had friends and lovers here, did he live so far apart from them. 

In all the time Jason had known him, several years at this point, Drake had never seemed particularly close with anyone. He worked with Jason most regularly and they had the occasional drink together but nothing went beyond that. Drake lived alone, slept alone, and aside from Jason, worked alone. But he stayed in Wayne’s territory despite all of that and the disapproval of his friends and kin. 

Drake was silent for a long moment as the Faerie Lord glowered down at them. Then Drake lifted his hand and spoke a few words in the fae tongue. Mist swirled around his fingers, and he created within the palms of his hands an image of the farmhouse with the blood-soaked floor and hanging bodies. The crowd went silent, the Faerie Lord stilled, and Jason looked away. 

"One of them was a child,” Drake said softly. “They were Farmers. Friends of a Miller..."

The Faerie Lord's dark eyes took in the image and it scowled. Shaking its head, it barked out orders in their strange language, shouting at the other Fae around them. Several jumped up and as they scurried away, Drake let the image in his palms melt into mist.

"This will be settled before dawn," the Faerie Lord said coldly. "Then the human leaves. What you do is up to you."

He turned from them then, nothing but a flash of silver and dark magic. With a wave of his hand, the music began again, and the swirling dance rose up around them, circling the fire with a dizzying speed.

Drake slumped and Kon wrapped an arm around his shoulders, as Cass’i and Ba’rt crowded around him. They spoke in soft tones in the fae language that Jason didn’t understand. All Jason could do was watch, as they brought Drake comfort in a way Jason never had and maybe never could.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason continues to be elf-struck and Tim preservers. 
> 
> Written for JayTim Spooktober. Prompt #5 Anything Supernatural Goes (Spoiler Alert: Tim is the Supernatural Thing)

Jason lost track of time.

The heat of the fire, the swirling morass of the fae, the rising tones of the eerie music all made his mind slow and dull. Shapes blurred together, voices and music blended into an unintelligible cacophony, the heat of the fire melted away into a sharp chill wind. He felt his eyes slip in and out of focus as the stars rose above him and moved in patterns he didn’t recognize.

He started when Drake took his hand again. His eyes were wide and a brilliant glittering blue in the flickering of the firelight. Jason felt his heart rate pick up again. He saw Drake's lips moving but couldn't make out the words he was saying.

Drake shook his head in frustration and gripped Jason by the back of the neck. Rocking up on his toes, Drake brought his lips in close to Jason's ear. 

He shivered as Drake repeated what he had been saying. "Not much longer. Then we can leave and you'll feel better," he said. "I promise."

Jason nodded dumbly, feeling a sort of dim relief that didn't quite penetrate the fog in his mind. Drake opened his mouth to say something else but Kon came over and put a hand on his shoulder before he could speak. He leaned in close to both of them to whisper in Drake's ear in their fae tongue. Jason had no idea what he was saying but he could feel the heat coming off the blue fae.

Whatever Kon said made a small, sly smile spread out across Drake's face as he looked back at him. He said something else that made Drake pause and cut his eyes hesitantly back to Jason. 

"You can dance," Jason found himself saying before he even realized he was going to speak. "If you want. I can stay here. I'll... I'll stay here. While you dance."

The vision of Drake dancing with the rest of the fae was burned into his memory. He couldn’t help but want to see it one more time. 

Drake's eyebrows rose in something almost like surprise and a light blue blush came up across his cheeks. He looked away from Jason's face, into the fire and the swarm of dancing fae.

"It wasn't... It wasn't dancing he was suggesting," Drake explained nervously.

Before Jason could react, Kon had wrapped an arm around Drake's waist and pulled him back into him, hugging him close from behind. Looking smug and tall and exotic, he whispered something into Drake's ear that made the blush come higher in his cheeks. The two others, Ba'rt and Cass'i, called out then in high, encouraging voices. They goaded Kon on loudly as he nuzzled at Drake's neck.

Something hot, a sparking mix of jealousy and lust, broke through the haze in Jason's mind. His mouth went dry and the urge to reach out, to pull Drake back to him was almost overwhelming. The idle thoughts he had allowed himself to dwell on when he was alone suddenly felt much more urgent. He wanted to be the one to press his nose into Drake's neck and breathe in his scent. He wanted to be the one to hold Drake close, pull their bodies together, and just feel the heat and warmth of him. He wanted to be the one to make him smile, sly and knowing, just as he smiled for Kon now.

Drake said something that Jason couldn't understand that made all of the fae around them laugh. Their laughter was almost like a physical wave that made him go dizzy around the eyes and his stomach roiled as if the earth was shaking.

Without conscious thought, Jason stepped in close to Drake, possessively gripping his hips. He locked eyes with Kon over Drake's shoulders, trying hard to look firm, unafraid, and confident. The blue fae's eyes, as wild and blue as a stormy sky, widened for a brief moment of surprise that quickly melted into amusement. He laughed and nudged Drake's ear with his nose.

"Do I have competition now?" Kon asked in Common with fond amusement in his voice. "For the first time in millennia?"

Jason couldn't actually bring himself to look down at Drake's face. He was worried he would see rejection and pity there. Instead, he focused on Kon's expression, on the winding, twisting path of the brightly colored henna painted across his dusky blue skin. He focused on the thick mane of dark hair that tumbled over his shoulders in a mix of windblown strands and loose braids.

Up close, he was less frightening than he had seemed at first. There were laugh lines at the corners of his eyes and his mouth was full and more inclined to smile than to frown.

Wryly, Jason could admit to himself that he understood why Kon hadn't had competition for millennia.

"Well," Drake said, his voice low with amusement. "I do have to keep you on your toes, don’t I? Wouldn’t want you to get complacent.”

“Complacent? I would never--”

Heedless of Jason, Kon leaned down to press a hot kiss to Drake's mouth. They both laughed through it, as if fond amusement and passion were intrinsically linked for them. Jason felt something pull at his heart.

"I'll have to try harder," Kon said as he pulled away from Drake to look at Jason with a grin. He leaned forward, his forehead nearly touching Jason’s as he smiled. "I need to live up to your strong human protector."

There was a little bite to his words, Jason could sense a vague sort of fond contempt. As if he knew, when it was all over and the dust settled between them, Drake would come back to him. 

Before Jason could respond, another horn sounded and Drake stiffened between them.

"They're back," he said tensely.

The amusement melted off of Kon's face and he turned in the direction from which the sound had come. The music around them began to fade and an excited, nervous chatter rose up from the fae around them. Jason could feel when Kon's arms tightened around Drake's waist, instinctively.

"I thought it wouldn't be long before they found her," Kon said. "But that was a bit faster than I expected."

"She's-- There's a madness in her now, I think," Drake said in a quiet, halting voice. “She’s not hiding her tracks.”

Kon nodded and pressed his cheek to the top of Drake's head. "The millennia weighed heavily on her," he murmured.

"Who?" Jason asked. "Did you know the person who killed--"

"Baobhian Sith," Drake said, he tilted his head sadly to one side. "She is very old."

"She had been keeping much to herself in recent years," Kon added. "We didn't notice at first when she slipped away. We assumed she was hunting..."

"She feeds mostly on animals, sometimes birds," Drake continued for him. “But she had been more brutal lately. More than she needed to be.”

"We knew she was..." Kon began then broke off with a shake of his head. "We didn't expect this, though."

Before Jason could ask another question, the same strange horn sounded for a second time. Drake pulled away from them both and started off in the direction it rang from. Jason couldn't see his face, but he could see the shiver and the slight hunch to his shoulders as he walked. Kon gripped Jason's arm, well above the iron nail, and tugged him along with them.

A few older fae, hair white and beards long, filtered after them. Will-o-the-whisps provided scattered little havens of light as they made their way through a darkened forest. There was no trail, but Drake and Kon knew the way, picking a path through fallen trees and thick bracken. They came to a clearing with a round stone courtyard sunk into the grass.

The Faerie Lord was back, sitting in a large stone chair, glaring out at the other fae as they assembled. To his left sat a snarling woman. She growled out in a low, savage voice as she struggled against the ropes that bound her. Blood spattered what had once been a light blue dress. It was torn in several places to reveal the bent, furry legs of deer.

Swallowing hard, Jason felt his instincts take over and he stopped abruptly. Fear again crawled across his skin as he watched the furious woman gasping and hissing at the two impassive fae warriors standing next to her.

Kon tugged at his arm, giving him a reassuring look. "She can't hurt you," he said softly. "You need to come."

As Drake and Jason stepped on to the courtyard, the Faerie Lord rose to its feet with a terrible elegance. 

Gesturing to the ravening figure on the ground at its feet, it turned to glare imperiously at them. "This is the creature you seek?" the Faerie Lord intoned in the Common tongue.

Drake lifted his hands again, and Jason felt the skin on his neck prick as blurry red lines spilled from Drake's fingers tips and trailed over to the bound woman.

"She is," Drake confirmed, letting the red strands burn brightly in the darkness of the courtyard.

The Faerie Lord nodded and turned to Jason, expression firm and firm. "Baobhian is old. She is ill. In her madness, she left our lands. She has killed three of your people and risked the truce between our two worlds. You will bear witness for your people that justice has been served here."

Jason nodded, trying hard to look firm and confident but feeling a little sick. He tried hard not to wonder what a creature like the Faerie Lord would consider justice. He hoped it was nothing too gruesome.

Baobhian Sith was pulled to the center of the courtyard. The Faerie Lord said something in the fae language and she shrieked and screamed and kicked her powerful deer legs, but she could not break free of her captors. There was pain in her voice now, pain and fear, hate and a hopeless panic. Upon a final word from their lord, one of the fae stepped forward with a sword in her hand. With two quick strokes, the screaming stopped and Baobhian Sith lay still and silent on the cold stone.

The swordswoman removed one of her hooves, placed it in a leather bag, and handed it to Jason. Numbly, he took it, nodding his thanks to the fae.

It had been faster than Jason expected. More humane than he would have thought the Faerie Lord capable. It had been almost merciful given the fear and pain in Baobhian’s eyes. 

The Faerie Lord stalked back to its throne, heedless of the blood that ran in rivulets over the stones of the courtyard. It slid elegantly back into its throne and glowered down at them. "You were brave to come here, human. Take your token back to your master and let him know that justice has been done," it said cooly, to Jason before turning back to Drake. "The human must be gone before sunrise."

Drake nodded and said something in the language of the fae before bowing deeply to the Faerie Lord. Then Jason felt a hand at his elbow and found himself being led off by Kon again, with Drake close on their heels.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^

The rest of the night was a blur to Jason. Shapes became rounded and unclear, voices melted into a lyrical sort of hum, scents blended into a herby musk, and his face felt numb and his hands clumsy as he clutched the hoof of Baobhian to his chest. He closed his eyes against the blur, the buzz, the empty cloying coldness inside of him until...

When he blinked his eyes back open, it wasn't dark anymore. Early morning sunlight flitted through the colorful canopy above them as frost edged the leaves and branches of the forest. The air felt crisp and clear and, as Jason took a deep breath, he felt a jolt of clarity rush through him.

He was sitting on horseback, behind Drake. The warm line of his back was pressed against Jason's chest. His arms were wrapped around Drake's waist and a scarf was tied around his wrists to keep him in place. The horse's gait was steady and even as he picked his way down the forest trail.

Jason wasn't sure how long they had been riding, but this stretch of forest was familiar to him. It was an area just before a long stretch of farmland, less than three hours from Wayne Manor on the hill. The trees above them were familiar shapes, the comforting scent of aspen trees and damp earth set him at ease. 

A chickadee sang from the brush off to his left, the lilting repetitive sound clear in Jason's mind. "Chick-a-deeee-deeee-deee-deeee-deee. Chick-a-deeee-deeee-deee-deeee-deee."

Sounds were sharp again, he could breathe in the scents of the forest, the trees and the sky looked clear and in focus. Jason took a deep breath, and the gnawing sense of fear that had been in the pit of his stomach when he woke drifted away.

Drake tensed when he sensed Jason wake and he turned back to look at Jason with an uncertain expression on his face. "Jason," he ventured, tentatively.

Suddenly feeling a little overwhelmed with relief, Jason puffed out a breath of air and pressed his face into Drake's shoulder. "I'm awake," he admitted and he felt Drake's gloved fingers tugging at the scarf binding his wrists together. It came free, and Drake tucked it into the pocket of his jacket as Jason rubbed at his wrists. But he didn't move his arms, he kept them wrapped around Drake's middle.

"How are you feeling? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, just feeling like I woke up from a very strange dream."

"That's common," Drake said with a nod.

“You do this often? Whisk humans away?”

“To be clear, you were accidentally whisked,” Drake said wryly. “But I’ve seen others. You handled it better than all of them.”

"So it wasn't a dream, then? And we did watch a Faerie Lord condemn a lady-vampire-deer to death and her hoof is in my backpack?"

Drake huffed out a short laugh but nodded. "All of those things did happen," he confirmed.

"And you're a faerie."

"I-- Yes. I am," Drake confessed. "That's also true."

"Does Wayne know?"

Drake was silent for a long moment before answering. "I believe he has some suspicion but... he prefers not to ask."

"Why are you--" Jason began, then broke off, not sure how to finish that question.

"Why am I pretending to be a seer in a moderately sized territory? Why am I spending so much time with humans? Why am I potentially angering the Faerie Lord and putting myself at risk? Why did I leave my friends and clan to venture off into a world of humans who would fear me?"

"All of those, yes."

Drake blew out a sigh, and Jason could feel his chest expand as he breathed and the puff of air turned into a hot little cloud in the morning chill. Shrugging, Drake shook his head. "Those are fair questions, but I don’t think I have a simple answer for you.”

“With you, I never expect simple.”

Drake huffed out a soundless laugh before he spoke again. “At first, I was just curious. Humans are so different from us in so many ways. I wanted to understand why."

"And then?"

"Then... I met you. And you were... very interesting," he explained, his voice halting and unsure as he spoke. "And then, we saved those children who had been lost. Then we ran off those bandits without anyone getting hurt..."

Jason smiled to himself and nodded. "That was fun," he said and he felt Drake's chest quiver in another silent laugh.

"It was fun. And so was the time we went after the 'feral lion' that turned out to be a golden bear. And the time we went to Court to negotiate territory checkpoints on behalf of Wayne, and you scandalized them all. And then there was the time we were lost in the Narrow Canyons. And I kept telling myself I would go back after the next mission we had..."

A warm, affectionate amusement ran through Jason as Drake reminded him of all the missions and adventures they had experienced together over the last few years. Some had been fun, some had been boring, some had been scary in the moment, but they had survived them all with barely a scratch.

"But then..." Drake continued, his voice getting a little lower, a little darker in a way that made Jason sit up straighter in the saddle. "Then there was the Callow Lizard. Then you were hurt and nearly died. I felt so scared and so desperate. I healed you using magic I knew I shouldn’t have used and I realized..."

Drake's back had gone tense, the muscles hard against Jason's chest. Jason could hear the tightness in Drake's throat and he could see how tightly he held the reins of the horse.

"I have millennia to be with my people. To be with Kon," he finished finally. "I don't have that with you. With you... I only have the time you and I can make."

Jason felt like the air had gone out of his lungs. Breathless and a little afraid, he leaned forward, wrapping his arms tighter and pressing face against Drake's cold cheek. "You want to stay. With me."

Drake nodded and took a deep breath. "Yes," he said softly. "I want to stay with you. For as long as I can. For as long as we have."

Jason nodded and leaned forward to nuzzle at Drake's cheek. His skin was cool and soft and perfect. He smelled like the wind, like something that would gust past him and out of his grip if he wasn’t careful.

But he felt warm and solid in Jason's arms. His hair, still down around his shoulders, tickled Jason's face as curled around his delicate, pointed ears. Jason couldn't imagine what it would be like to live as long as Drake. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to watch a world grow and change and advance. There was so little Jason would be able to experience in his short lifetime while Drake's was long and vast, stretching out for hundreds of years, if not more.

But in time he had, Drake had met him. And Drake liked him. And Drake thought that was important. Important enough to stay with him, to learn more about him. To be friends with him.

Maybe even to love him.

"I'd like that," Jason said softly and nuzzled past the long hair flowing over Drake's face to press a kiss to his chilled cheek.

“Now,” Jason said. “Tell me about the other faeries we met.”

Jason held Drake close and the two of them rode off towards home as Drake told him all about the friends and family he had back in the Faerie Lands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mannnnnn, Tim has so much explaining to do... 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed it! 
> 
> As a quick note baobhan sith is an actual vampire fairy with deer hooves! Here's the wiki entry for those interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baobhan_sith


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